A Review of Modern Electrical Theories
Wm. A. Anthony · Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers · 1890
The general phenomena of electricity are familiar to us all.As children we learned of attraction and repulsion of electrostatic charges, of condensers, of insulators and conductors, of electric currents and electro-magnets, of telegraphs, and electric fire alarms and electric bells, of the heating of conductors, and even electric lights.We have long been familiar with the effect of the current on a magnetic needle, and with the attraction and repulsion of currents for each other.We have seen that these effects are manifested at a distance from the conductors wlhich carry the currents, and we have been willing to believe that the distances at which these phenomena could be recognized were limited only by the want of sensitiveness of the apparatus through which the effects were manifested.Probably not many of us stop to think how these effects were brought about.We were content with a general statement of the relations of the phenomr,ena, or, at least, with the determination of the direction and intensity of the forces due to a given conformation of current.We talked of the attrac- tions and repulsions as action across space, and, if we thought of them at all as requiring any mechanism through which to act, we still felt satisfied when we had discovered and formulated the laws that govern the action of these forces.